Hold the mayo

You may have seen the news article a few months ago that
multinational giant Unilever, maker of Hellman's
Mayonnaise, was suing the (very small) producer of Just Mayo,
a vegan "mayonnaise." Unilever brought the lawsuit claiming that
Just Mayo's label was misleading, and that because it contains no
eggs, the product doesn't meet the legal definition of
mayonnaise.

Yesterday Unilever announced it was dropping the
lawsuit to allow Hampton Creek to address its label issues
directly with regulatory authorities and industry groups.
(Just in time for holiday deviled egg trays!) Just Mayo's CEO, Josh
Tetrick, praised the decision. Keeping an upbeat attitude, he noted
that the lawsuit had provided his company with a windfall
of publicity, boosting sales and giving the company "the
opportunity to tell our story to millions of people."

Critics of the lawsuit noted that some of Unilever's products
that were labled as mayonnaise weren't exactly mayonnaise
either. Just after filing the lawsuit, the company "tweaked
references on its websites to products to refer to them as
"mayonnaise dressing" rather than mayonnaise."

We'd love to year what you think of the lawsuit and Just
Mayo's label. Is the label inherently misleading, or was Unilever
overreacting by filing a multi-million dollar suit?

1 Comment

Really, if it's vegan, it can't contain eggs, so how can they claim it suggests it does contain eggs? Vegan mayo is different from normal mayonnaise, but then so is light mayonnaise. It might be an acceptable substitute if that's your diet, but if you choose this kind of mayonnaise you know that it's different from normal mayonnaise, because that's the reason you buy it.
And in the Netherlands Hellman's isn't allowed to call itself mayonnaise as it doesn't contain enough oil. So there.